Things concerning Jews in Portland and everywhere that happen here and in Israel coming from an American-Israeli.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

What Peace In Gaza?

Nadene Goldfoot

The Gaza Strip has been a hotbed for terrorist cells. After the Six Day War of 1967 when Israel won against the aggression of all its neighbors wanting to take Israel, something happened and Israel won and in doing so gained back Gaza and Judea and Samaria. In the Jordanian move in 1948 when they illegally took Judea and Samaria, Israel had lost 80% of the promised Jewish Homeland that had been their ancient land of Judah and Samaria (Israel). By 1993, there was an agreement of the Oslo Accords. Till then, things were pretty quiet out of Gaza, the fermenting was just bubbling quietly. Oslo was some city to hold talks about Israel's security and right of existence. The capital of Norway was the city that had Jews living there since 1876 when a group bought land for a cemetery. 1892 saw a Jewish congregation there. During the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 45, most were deported to their death. The Jewish population of 900 were almost all wiped out.

"The Oslo Accords are a set of agreements between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Oslo in 1993 and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba in 1995." This is when the Palestinian Authority "PA" was created. The PLO recognized Israel (Arafat's terrorists) and Israel recognized the PLO. They gained the right to self determination, and they sure did, by later voting in Hamas terrorists as their government in Gaza.

Gaza goes from east to west for 26 (?) miles, contains 147 square miles and holds 1.8 million people . There are 9.713 people per square mile or was when the population was 1,428.757 not too long ago. Wikipedia tells us "Gaza, is a Palestinian region on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt on the southwest for 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) and Israel on the east and north along a 51 km (32 mi) border". 32 mile border is 6 miles longer than the given 26 mile border by another source. It's now crowded because they are the 13th highest in the world of population growth. "Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 2.91% (2014 est.)" While the rest of the world has been having 2 children per parents, they are into mass production.

"The Oslo process is the "peace process" that started in 1993 with secret talks between Israel and the PLO. It became an endless cycle of negotiations, suspension, mediation, restart of negotiations and suspension again. A number of agreements were reached, until the Oslo process ended after the failure of the Camp David Summit in 2000 and the outbreak of the Second Intifada."

Gaza's many terrorists gained weapons after the Oslo accords. This is because the IDF left the urban areas where most Palestinian lived. Five years after that the Qassam fire into southern Israel started. Ten years later in 2005, Israel left Gaza completely which allowed the terrorists to band together with those in the Sinai. It became a terrorist hotbed.

Hamas wasted no time in taking over Gaza. They overruled the Islamic Jihad, which was Iran-backed. Somebody called for a democratic process and so the Arabs were able to vote, and they voted for Hamas to be the government.

Massive amounts of weapons of every type have been funneled into Gaza through Iran and Hezbollah. It was sped up by the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya. Libya has been the source of weapons fro terrorists and rogue countries.

Hamas lost the control over the crossings between Sinai and Gaza Strip where they brought weapons experts and military knowledge into Gaza. Then they smuggled weapon-manufacturing machinery and critical materials to Gaza. The terrorists now make their own long range rockets and other types of weapons like drones. Tunnels go underground and lead out to Israel. Terrorists are prepared for kidnapping or killing citizens.

We can view the Hamas terrorist threat as if it were a chronic disease. They are not much different than ISIS or al Qaeda or Hezbolla or the Taliban. A chronic disease has unpleasant yet tolerable daily effects. It requires a difficult treatment every few years. Should Israel look at their future as having to put up with repeated outbreaks like this? Can Israel live under the threat of long range missiles firing at any time of the day or night? Or should Israel put an end to it all like a surgeon would look at a necessary operation? An operation means taking a risk to perform, even it it could alleviate many of the symptoms completely. It could take a long aftercare. One could say that this is what's going on right now with Israel taking out the tunnels and the platforms where rockets, mortars and missiles have been firing from. It's been a very risky operation being that the terrorists have the mitigating gall to hide their weapons in schools, mosques and even hospitals and UN safety zones. Their rockets are fired so wildly that they just hit a UN safe site with their own rocket just a few hours ago which is still being check out.

Though John Kerry is there to bring a halt to the operation before it's over, leaving the patient with the disease which can grow and expand like a cancer, Israel is trying its best to continue their pinpoint firings on the proper sites like a laser ray in a back operation and not touch the civilian innocents. One improvement over a setback has been the lifting of the freeze of not using the airport in Tel Aviv. This ends this afternoon which gave Hamas the idea that they had won a round. I wonder now if they purposely aimed at the UN safe building full of women and children or if it was just the doings of their wild rocket firing, for they do not have the capability to aim to a target; they just point their firings into a direction and fire. Often the rockets misfire and do not go as far as expected. They've landed before in Gaza.

Like many in the USA have said, end the problem successfully by stopping Hamas once and for all. They don't want this disease to spread to their country. Egypt has no love for Hamas either, and have closed the exits Hamas would love to use. Hamas doesn't honor any promise. They cannot be trusted. After all, they are terrorists.

A surgeon has said that operations shouldn't be done unless all other options have been exhausted and there is no other reasonable choice. Then, and only then, should it be performed, and performed thoroughly and despite the risks. Most likely this is why the IDF were on the edge of Gaza for so long, deciding on if they should perform Operation Protective Edge. Just since the 16h, look at the number of rockets shot into Israel from Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

July 13

130 rockets were fired from Gaza.

July 14

115 rockets were fired from Gaza.

July 15

156 rockets were fired from Gaza.

July 16

132 rockets were fired from Gaza.

July 20

87 rockets were fired from Gaza.

July 21

82 rockets were fired from Gaza, 14 of which were intercepted by Iron Dome. Rocket strikes were reported in Sderot, Ashkelon, near Rosh Ha'ayin, and in Shaar Hanegev, causing damage to an empty kindergarten.

July 22

87 rockets were fired from Gaza, 18 of which were intercepted.

Hamas has been offered a cease fire 3 times and have refused it. They now say they need it They've always had conditions tagged onto to it, however. They need numbers of deaths on their side, as sick as it sounds, as a weapon to hold over Israel's head. It's to Israel's credit not to have such a death count. I'm afraid that Hamas only thought of all those rockets they had piled up to use and didn't think of the affects that came along with them. Humanitarian cease fires were used by them to shoot at Israelis. 3,000 rockets in the past 3 weeks were shot into Israel. Israel doesn't trust them.

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.